1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to digital hearing aid instruments. More specifically, the invention provides an advanced inter-channel communication system and method for multi-channel digital hearing aid instruments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital hearing aid instruments are known in this field. Multi-channel digital hearing aid instruments split the wide-bandwidth audio input signal into a plurality of narrow-bandwidth sub-bands, which are then digitally processed by an on-board digital processor in the instrument. In first generation multi-channel digital hearing aid instruments, each sub-band channel was processed independently from the other channels. Subsequently, some multi-channel instruments provided for coupling between the sub-band processors in order to refine the multi-channel processing to account for masking from the high-frequency channels down towards the lower-frequency channels.
A low frequency tone can sometimes mask the user's ability to hear a higher frequency tone, particularly in persons with hearing impairments. By coupling information from the high-frequency channels down towards the lower frequency channels, the lower frequency channels can be effectively turned down in the presence of a high frequency component in the signal, thus unmasking the high frequency tone. The coupling between the sub-bands in these instruments, however, was uniform from sub-band to sub-band, and did not provide for customized coupling between any two of the plurality of sub-bands. In addition, the coupling in these multi-channel instruments did not take into account the overall content of the input signal.